The Genre Safest From Me

What genre (or sub-sub-sub) genre is safest from me? Which one am I least likely to write? Uhm...hmm.  My ego would like to think it can rise to any challenge, yea though that challenge might end in the Universe caving in on itself.

I'm least likely to write some sort of earnest sweet Amish romance. I don't know that I could resist going all Sir Terry Pratchett on it.

Ya know what? Probably should bump that up to "least likely to write a sweet romance."  Aliens, shifters, dragons...they really do like to show up in the most unexpected places. Keeps things interesting.

To Label Is Human

So file this photo into a single genre.

Is it a sunset shot? A wildlife shot? A nature picture? Clouds? Or is it all of those things? If you were looking for a shot of a seagull in profile at sunset, how would you begin searching for it? Likely, you'd start with the keyword 'sunset' but you'd end up with millions of results. Some over mountains or cityscapes or forests or fields. Some with people. Some with animals. But you really, really want that bird for the cover of your special interest mag "Sea Bird Quarterly". So you have to add 'bird' to your sunset search to narrow the results. You get eagles, herons, song birds and vultures. This makes you switch 'bird' to 'sea bird' or 'seagull' and presto. You've found your cover.

This is the power of labels. Genres are nothing more than labels. They're labels meant to make it easy for readers to find what they want to read. Whether or not those labels are accurate or not is another rant. But like anything, genre labels can be used for good or for evil. (Good - you find your next favorite read on your lunch hour and still have enough lunch time left over to actually start your book. Bad - you get stuck inside the box you've been reading in and never entertain anything else.)

What's amusing to me is the notion that I get to pick which genre a story will be. Maybe there are people in this world who can do that. I certainly don't get to. The stories dictate what they will be. I go along for the ride or I give up writing altogether. Because they are adamant. So. This story wants to be in the past, a fictional past at that, with gadgets and improbable hideouts, magic and spies? Why the hell not? Sounds like fun. I have no idea what genre to call it. Historical Fantasy? Steam Fantasy? But yeah, write a story that's one thing? Probably not in my nature. It's at the juncture of genres that I find the things that interest me. There's likely some telling psychological issue there. I'll claim it's just fun.

Are you old enough to remember the commercials: "You got chocolate in my peanut butter! You got peanut butter on my chocolate!" Yeah. Genre blending all the way, because two flavors go great together.

3 Reasons to Write to One Genre & 3 Reasons to Blend Genres

Writing to a specific genre. How does it benefit an author?

Three Reasons to Write to One Genre:

1. Established Framework
Face it, when you're staring at a blank Page One with little more than a glimmer of an idea, anything is possible. Sometimes, "anything" is paralyzing because of the excess of choice.  Aiming for a specific genre can supply guidance for setting, POV(s), number of characters, plot beats, and overall length of the story.

2. Established Publishing & Distribution Markets
If you plan to self-publish, you will need to hire editors and artists who specialize in your genre--specialization makes a notable difference in the end product. Once the product is ready, you need to know the distributors with the most targeted reach among your ideal consumers. If you're squarely in a particular genre, then that information is readily available and accessible.

If you plan to run the gantlet of traditional publishing (of any size), your genre dictates the course you will run. Writing to a specific genre makes that course infinitely easier for you and everyone who has to re-sell your product up the food-chain to get your product to the right market.

3. Established Consumer Market 
We all want sales. Great sales. Enough to buy barrels of wine kind of sales. Regardless of the path to market you took, you still need to sell the books. Thankfully, consumers readily self-identify as fans of specific genres. If you've written a book in their genre--a book that meets the Contract of Expectations between Author and Reader--then you can hop on the sales train that has been built and maintained by all those authors in your genre who came before you. You can tap into the networks of book reviewers, reader conferences, sales catalogs, bundled ad-spots, and more.

Seems like a no-brainer to write to a specific genre right? Not so fast.

Three Reasons to Blend Across Genres:

1. You Want To
2. It's What the Story Needs
3. Your Characters Said You Had To

As I've posted before, I don't know any author who doesn't blend genres. Yes, we need to choose which genre is going to be our primary target audience, but when it comes to sales, we're going to pursue those secondary genre markets too.

Barrels of wine are at stake.